When I say very average, I still mean good. Just that Celtic were very average, and there was mumblings he wasn't really helping the cause too much, but then those same mumblings were levelled at VVD before he left.
Do we need another striker if Ings stays (which it sounds like he is regardless of signing a new deal or not). Can’t imagine Edouard would be cheap so, again, wouldn’t say no to him but there are definitely other areas we need to address first and I doubt we have the budget to be buying 6/7 players
Maybe he is the striker we are looking at if Ings leaves. I know Saints have been very publicy saying they are confident he will stay, but you never know. We have done well out of Celtic in the past and the fact that they may want Alien Lucy permanently could help our cause if we do want Edouard.
I get the feeling that seeing as the rumour comes from The Sun, they've thought "who is decent at Celtic + who likes buying Celtic's good players = Southampton".
Ings isn't going anywhere. Even if we sign another striker, he will probably be unproven in this league so too much of a risk. I honestly don't think anyone is too worried about him walking at the end of his contract as long as we use next season to transition.
Evann Guessand of Nice another one we're monitoring according to the same story. https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sp...ltic-edouard-southampton-join-transfer-fight/
celtic would not be able to afford the wages for both of them. One would probably be a stretch what are their finances like? As they might be under pressure to push next season since they were beaten to the title so comprehensively
I guess RLC would bring something to one of the two attacking midfield positions more similar to what Armstrong does than what any of the others (who are much of a muchness) do - Walcott, Tella, Redmond, Djenepo The argument is probably that we lose quite a lot when Armstrong doesn’t play compared to when any of that other lot don’t RLC in theory could mitigate this but also be used in the same side But as mentioned his wages (and therefore our share) are too high. Someone else will give him a go and stretch to that. Palace again (especially if lampard goes there), maybe West Ham it sounds like our only chance here would be if no one is prepared to offer a higher share of the wages than us. And I don’t see it That said it seems like Fulham won that race out of desperation for more premier league quality players. They didn’t even regularly play him or have a system that fitted him. It was proper Football Manager style of looking at the “available for loan” list and looking for the most high profile loans / names you recognised
Hopefully any rivals will be put off by his mediocre season with Fulham. If Ralph can work his magic then that’s a hell of a player to add to our midfield options.
I am not sure I see the point of loaning a player who is on probably three times the salary we could ever pay him. Adds quality but we could never keep him at the end This is not true of recent loans. All are ones we could eventually budget to have join permanently if they worked out : Walcott, Minamino, Walker-Peters, Ings Going all the way back to Bertrand and Toby. Would prefer Gallagher from Chelsea in that instance. Or the central defender (since it is one per club). I’d put good money on one of those going to Palace - especially if Lampard does go there (which, incidentally, would be an insane decision by them)